Chapter 106: Tail Ship 24
One red and one black, two thin waterfalls flow quietly along the moist silver threads.
At the bottom of the scale, an invisible large vat appeared, gently catching the liquid and holding it in. Two deep vats of distinct colors appeared in front of Jiang Yuelu.
He ignored the quarrel coming from below and looked around intently.
Like a giant black jelly, it continues to absorb new pain.
When he got closer, he could hear mournful wails coming from it, and on the surface of the "jelly", concave black holes kept emerging. From his perspective, it looked like a skull face with empty eyes and a wide-open mouth wailing.
Leng Wenhan pulled his sleeve.
"What's wrong?"
"Him." Leng Wenhan asked him to turn his head and look at the other side. Tong Mian's face was distorted without knowing when, as if he was in great pain, and his face was covered with sweat.
“Uh…”
He cried out in pain, "I can't breathe anymore, it's so depressing, I'm going crazy..."
Jiang Yuelu asked Leng Wenhan, "What about you?"
He shook his head, "A little bit."
"Maybe he's too close to the pain. Tong Mian has a special physique." Jiang Yuelu asked him and Tong Mian to move back a little, but Leng Wenhan looked embarrassed.
He pointed at the little ghost who was trying hard to support them at his feet.
"If I leave, you will fall."
They were originally able to float in the air with the help of the little ghosts, just like a hundred ghosts gathered at the feet of Luoyinguan now, because the three of them stood closely together, it was very stable. But if Leng Wenhan took away eighty ghosts, Jiang Yuelu would only have twenty here, which was not enough.
Luoyinguan was worried.
Jiang Yuelu laughed, "It's okay, I'm not powerless, and you and Tong Mian just need to stand a little further away."
"Yeah." Leng Wenhan dragged Tong Mian back reluctantly. A large group of gray ghosts followed him. When Tong Mian's complexion improved a little, he stopped immediately.
Jiang Yuelu looked back at the deep black tank again.
During the conversation, the black jelly grew bigger. Listening carefully, Jiang Yuelu heard the wailing and voices of the whole boat, making a lot of noise. Jiang Yuelu also heard a familiar voice.
"I'm so useless. This is my first chance to take the test."
Is this... Tong Mian?
"I'm not very good at talking, will you hate me?"
This is Leng Wenhan.
He was surprised to find that the cry face mark on Drake's forehead was slowly fading. At the same time, Big Black Jelly expressed his regret, "I should have discovered it earlier! I have disappointed my dad so much!"
A sudden inspiration came to him, and he turned around.
The marks on Leng Wenhan and Tong Mian's faces were also fading away, and their painful murmurs were tumbling in the vat behind them.
He pointed to his face, "Are you still there?"
"Mark?" Tong Mian opened his eyes and said with difficulty: "I noticed just now that Leng Wenhan no longer has a crying face... Hmm? Why is yours still there?"
"Still there?" He was also surprised.
The harsh laughter interrupted his doubts, but the ship owner was not responding to them - because when he found that the mark was disappearing, Drake and others had the same doubts.
The ship owner said disdainfully: "Of course the marks are gone! They were all taken back by the shipping scale. If you want to use pain as a bargain, I tell you, it's impossible!"
The old man said coldly: "I have no such intention at all. But if you are happy about it, you should look at your own people first."
The captain turned around and found his subordinates kneeling on the ground.
Howls of despair were heard from the room that used to be filled with laughter. They tore at their own skin, where there used to be a smile that made them extremely rich and noble above all others.
But at this moment, it was gone.
Joe covered his head in despair, "My happiness, my mark, everything I have... is disappearing, oh... it is dying!" They all heard the sound of the dream being shattered.
"Oh—your Lord," cried Joe, looking back. "Even you!"
The boat owner stroked his face nonchalantly, "I don't mind paying this price."
"Do you see those two glasses of wine in the sky?" He looked up at the sky. The rich red and black colors cut out a beautiful scenery, like a touch of morning glow merging with the night.
"Just like the alcohol content of wine accumulates, all pain and happiness will eventually reach a certain value. Is happiness greater than pain, or is pain greater than happiness..."
"You'll see it eventually," he challenged his father.
Daddy said calmly, "Yes, I will see. If you are talking about our victory. I have no doubt that Despair will defeat you."
There was a look of irony on the baby's face.
“Is your happiness real?”
"What is joy on this ship?"
"Is it the actors you hired who acted out the loving father and son, the loving couple? Is it the happy family you achieved with your hypocritical performance? Or is it the evil intent you had that was hard to conceal when you were being hypocritical?"
"Or is happiness the joy you get from exploiting the weak as the strong? Is it a fighting arena? Or is it a grave where you are forever immersed in illusory happiness?"
"Supreme, sincere joy, it turns the whole happiness into a nominal drama city - what a great drama, every ghost is pretending to be happy, pretending to be happy. What a great actor! I not only admire you, I also fully and completely forgive you!"
His sympathetic eyes were extremely clear, sweeping across the silent ghosts in happiness.
"Because you are so scared."
"You are afraid of losing this mark on your face, and you protect it like your lifeblood. You are afraid of being swept out of happiness and driven into despair! You know too well the consequences of despair - because the disgusting rules, fermenting malice, and the frenzy on this ship... are all created by you!"
"To be afraid of something that was created by oneself - don't you think that's really pathetic?"
The baby looked the boat owner in the face and said, "I don't think the false can defeat the true. Your so-called happiness is like a bubble that will dissipate after two steps."
The captain narrowed his eyes.
"Very good, very good. Then let us witness it with our own eyes..."
All the ghosts looked up at the sky, their eyes fixed on the two ends of the scale. The two huge cylinders broke through the ceiling and continued to expand with debris all over them.
It seems like... a monster.
The condensation of these pains and joys was as terrifying as a monster. It was constantly crying and laughing, and uttering the language and thoughts of a human being.
A question suddenly arose in their minds.
——Is this really the happiness and suffering of the ghosts on the ship?
So huge, so greedy, so uncontrollable... like two strange beasts. What's strange is that such creepy and strange things are taken from their minds? Are they part of them?
Finally, the two monsters slowed down their expansion.
They absorbed all the smiling faces and crying faces and reached the final value.
The ship owner took a deep breath and said, "Okay, now let's see... Let me make it clear first, there is no cheating here."
Daddy said impatiently, "I know. I understand despair just as you understand happiness. Let's not try to deceive each other on this matter."
They raised their bodies, stretched their necks, and stared intently at the red and black colors that were frozen in mid-air, but at the same time they uttered a strange sound: "Hmm?"
"It's missing..." The ship owner frowned.
Derek whispered, "He's acting again?"
Gurian shook his head. He saw that his father was also silent. Although there would be no more expression on the face of a baby, he could still tell that something had happened.
Dad said, “Yes, it’s less.”
"one."
"Yes, one."
The two leaders who always quarreled when they met suddenly became quiet and realized that this matter was very tricky.
The boat owner frowned and said, "Looking for a smiling face now is like looking for a needle in a haystack."
Dad: "Why are you so sure it will be a smiling face?"
The ship owner snorted coldly, "I know. Now we have to search the entire ship to find this mark. Otherwise, you will never admit that you have lost."
Drake looked at the two of them helplessly. To be honest, he felt that the ship owner was cheating. But he was stubborn and refused to admit it.
He wanted to complain to Gurian and Jin, but the two guys looked sullen and lifeless. He couldn't help but sigh inwardly, well, it's still most comfortable to work with Yan...
Thinking of this, he looked up into the sky.
Yan's figure was found in the gray mist. After the wisps of mist were pushed away, his face was revealed. There was something faintly visible under the sharp forehead line.
Drake rubbed his eyes, thinking that blood had gotten into his eyes and he must have seen it wrong.
But this time, he still opened his eyes wide in disbelief.
"…There's a mark on his face?!"
"What?" Gurian said impatiently, "Don't lie there and talk nonsense. What's going on now..."
"If you don't believe me, just look for yourself."
Following Drake's hand, Gurian was extremely surprised. He patted his father's rocking chair, forgetting how rude this was, "Dad, look--"
"Come to think of it... I don't understand where this group of ghost shadows came from? How did they suddenly fly into the sky?" The ship owner said to himself.
The hazy mist seemed to be hot, steaming up, causing the young man in the sky to have a slight double image. His two friends were standing not far away, also shrouded in a cloud of ghostly mist. And he himself, who was carefully observing pain and happiness, was the ghost closest to the two monsters of different colors.
As if noticing the burning gaze, Jiang Yuelu lowered his head and looked down.
Dad's eyes lit up, "Mark!"
The only remaining facial mark appeared on Jiang Yuelu's forehead, leaving a round mark on the overly pale skin.
But soon, they were surprised to find that this mark was different from the previous ones. It was not laughing, nor crying, and its mouth corners were straight, as if it was standing at the midpoint of suffering and happiness, watching them unconsciously.
Dad held out his hands to him in a friendly manner.
He looked at Jiang Yuelu with exceptional kindness, even though such a look on a baby's face was a little too creepy.
"You are indeed special, Yan. I was not wrong. For this, I even handed my dearest son to you and accompanied you here to see the ugly faces of these guys. Now, is it time for you to make your own choice?"
Before Jiang Yuelu could say anything, another hurried voice sounded.
"Our account is now settled!" the ship owner was impatient. "Just consider it as a gift to you, and let's make friends!"
Dad: "You're just trying to bribe people openly? You're really despicable."
"Same here! You're even more fucking disgusting!"
"Oh, it looks like you're admitting that you're disgusting?"
"..." The captain was too lazy to argue with him anymore, so he turned around and looked directly at Jiang Yuelu, "Give me a quick death! Now, which side do you want to join?"
All the hot eyes were focused on him, waiting for him to make a decision.
Happiness or misery? That is the question.
He never thought that one day he would become such an important character. Jiang Yuelu looked back at the deep jar of happiness and pain. On one side, there were screams, which belonged to Matthew. On the other side, there were loud laughter, which belonged to the ship owner and his subordinates.
False happiness, or real pain?
Or maybe, at this moment, he chose the seemingly more real pain, and chose these weak people who have lived in despair for a long time. When they sit in that high position and become strong, will they give rise to new falsehood and pain?
"It is wrong to make rules to measure people's hearts." He whispered.
"The enemies you should fight against are never each other."
As soon as the words fell, a faint light suddenly emitted from the center of the scale.
The miraculous change made everyone forget to breathe. The treasure that was only controlled by the ship owner suddenly floated from the sky and came into Jiang Yuelu's hands.
It made a sound for the first time.
A young man's voice, as fresh as the spring breeze, came from it.
The sound was gentle, and wherever it went it seemed as if graceful and leisurely golden branches of flowers bloomed.
"Jon. To be able to hear what I'm saying, I guess you've lost in the future."
The ship owner was horrified: "Lord..."
"Happiness, suffering, and things of measurement should not attract your attention too much, as that will lead to endless greed. Look at the damage you have caused. Is there still laughter outside?"
They looked outside and saw ghosts fighting each other, and the doors on the streets were closed.
Where is the laughter?
"A kingdom of eternal happiness, or is it?" The Lord asked softly, seemingly without any blame, but the captain lowered his head, feeling unprecedented fear, "I'm sorry... Lord, I'm really sorry..."
However, the boy seemed not to hear his apology. He laughed softly and changed the subject.
"I don't know who is competing with you, but I think if he didn't have a lot of selfish motives towards this scale and this boat, I wouldn't show up."
Dad pursed his lips and said nothing.
"You all have evil intentions. Who cares if there is true happiness on the ship? Is the competition judged by you really fair and can it make everyone happy?"
The Lord laughed, "So, I have already thought of a fair competition for you."
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